THOUSANDS of Australians joined rallies calling for the closure of Pacific island camps for asylum-seekers, just days after the government confirmed it was in talks with the Philippines to resettle detained refugees.

Under Canberra’s tough immigration policy, asylum-seekers attempting to reach the island continent by boat are turned back or sent to camps on Nauru or Papua New Guinea and barred from resettling in Australia even if found to be refugees.

Chanting “free, free the refugees”, the protesters yesterday in Sydney, Melbourne and other cities, said the government and Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, should close the Pacific detention centres, which have been harshly criticised by rights groups.

With Australia set to resettle 12,000 Syrian refugees amid the crisis in Europe, some demonstrators waved Syrian and Kurdish flags and said the government should move those held in the camps to the mainland.

One asylum-seeker, “Adbi”, who has reportedly been held on Manus Island for more than two years, called on Turnbull to help the detainees.

“They are traumatising us,” Abdi said on a phone call broadcast to the Sydney crowd, adding that conditions at the Papua New Guinea facility were “indescribable”.

Medical professionals at the rallies also expressed fears a new law could block their colleagues working at the camps from speaking out if they had allegations of asylum-seekers being abused.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Francois Crepeau, last month postponed a visit to Australia due to restrictions on his access to detention centres and fears that people who spoke to him could face legal reprisals.